He was a short, plump man wearing a baby blue shirt rolled casually at his sleeves. His eyes were the color of dirty water at a river's shore, and they were like a chicken egg, wide and overlarge, that gave him a permanently surprised look.  His oversized hands were flipping clumsily over some cards, his eyebrows raised hopefully.
“Please work! Please work!” he whispered, as he pulled one card out. His eyebrows drooped back down, and in a sudden fit, he threw the cards onto the pink, decorated, floor. 
“WHY WON’T IT WORK??” He screamed, throwing his handbook, So you wanna be a Magician?.

With a large growl, he started streaming for something else to throw, but finding nothing, he bonked his own head onto the wall. “GAH!” He looked through the room, through the princess themed ballons, through the stage with the words ‘Welcome Magician George!’ in gold letters.

“ Is there a problem, sir?” Said a low, sharp voice. Magician George spinned around to find tall, slim man staring back at him. This man was like a statue of Abraham Lincoln at you city hall, tall and slim, with thin lips and a sharp, black goatee. His eyes, however, were small and gray. He was wearing an ironed black suit like he was at a business conference rather than a pink, princess themed  party.

“I can not be a magician. I can not do it. All I wanted was to make people smile!!” Magician George sobbed.
“And do magic?” the man whispered.
The Magician George looked at him blankly. “ Magic? Card tricks aren’t magic. ”
“How about I teach you?” He whispered,a shrewd half smile forming on his face. “Do you know how to make people disappear?” He whispered, his eyebrows raised.
Magician George just scrunched his eyebrows.
“ You put a person in a box and lower the bottom down. The person is there but the audience thinks they are not. Magic is illusions. And there are many more illusions you can do.”
“Like what?”
The man patted George’s shouldar. “The most special illusions are the ones you can do with the mind.”                      
Magician George nodded, his mouth still open.
“Would you like to help me with my project? To make something ‘disappear’”
“Ah, and you may call me Acosto.” Said the man, and strode away lightly. Just another naive fool. Acosto thought

Years later....
Magician George could not stop hopping from one foot to the other like a little girl and he was not ashamed one bit. He hummed bubbly , as he thought of the work they had done for years, Acosto and him. The years of Acosto patiently teaching the magic of emotion, the only magic that a human can enchant. Years of building the machine, years of finding the right ingredients.  And today, they would test all of it. Today, he would truly become a magician.

Magician George asked Mr.Acosto, “ Are we ready? Why did we invite random people again?”
Acosto balled his fists, and vein in neck stuck out. How many times will he ask this?
“ We need people with most fear... I mean, er... we want to help people with the most trouble. A single mother. A bankrupt family. The CEO of a failing company”
Magician George went up to the stage, and went front a small group of people, from teenagers with pink hair the color of cotton candy to a middle aged businessman who were pacing at the back.
“Hello, everyone! Thank you for coming today...we sent letters to dozens of people we didn't know, but not much people came today. Though I can’t imagine why, you are about to see wonder. We are here today to see real magic... we are here to control emotions. See, with an illusion, we can make fear disappear.” Said Magician George. He hoped he had remembered to say everything Acosto told him to.

Acosto watched Magician George, but his mind was somewhere else. Sweat trickled down his neck, and his left arm was trembling. Yet, it was not anticipation, as this was the 18th time he had done this - with 18 magicians as naiive, as foolish as Magician George. Did he really think you can control emotions? Did he really think you could get rid of fear? Fear is the essence of human nature, it is our choices, our decisions, and our identity.  But fear can be temporarily hidden,  captured, and can be manipulated.                        

Magician George had now finished his speech, and was now beckoning people towards a completely underwhelming red box.  The first person, a blond girl named Ellen, stepped up onto the machine, an eyebrow raised.

Acosto closed his eyes.  For a moment, all was silent. And then he heard an ear-pinching scream. The girl was crying with pain, tears had filled her eyes, but she was frozen with fear, she couldn't move.

Ellen was back in the obscure alley. It was just like her dreams, but this time she could smell the weed in the air and cigarette smoke that was making her cough up... cough up blood. Ellen screamed, the blood was sticky, like honey and she couldn’t get it off. She pressed it against the wall, she wiped it off her shirt, but it stayed there, burning her skin. Boom. A gunshot. She tried to run, but the blood had gotten on her shoes. A dark figure was walking slowly towards her. Cold sweat ran down her back, she couldn't watch... and suddenly she was back in the auditorium.  The vision became a vague memory, and for a second calm, happy even. She grinned.

While everyone muttered with confusion, Acosto alone looked at ease, for he had travelled in that vision with her.   He could smell rotten meat of the alley, see the rats scampering across the floor. He didn't want to come with her, to follow her, but an invisible force pushed him, and he too was running. He saw a figure running towards them, the bang of a gun, and then.... And then he was back on the stage with Ellen once again, and he too was grinning, but for a very different reason.

    Acosto watched Magician George jump in anticipation. The fool, thinking he can play with emotions and memories. Acosto carefully collected a teardrop on Ellen’s chair. He had collected fear, and with it, he could get power and everything else he ever wanted.